Applied Animation: Documentary - Colour Tests and Shading

Applied Animation

Jormungandr Colours and Shading

• This week:
• I finished the line-work for the frame-by-frame animation of Jormungandr and then worked on the colouring and improvements.
• What went well:
• Before starting the colouring, I adjusted the timing of shot 6, so it would be a little bit slower, as noted in my previous blog-post.
• I learnt a lot about the colouring process in Toon Boom Harmony, such as adjusting the brush settings to allow for colouring below the lines or colouring over lines already placed. I was able to understand how the fill tool worked and using the gap-closer to my advantage when I hadn't properly joined up lines in the frames.
• I needed to adjust the character sheets, as the shading colours had not been properly referenced, as it was to be applied as an overlay layer. I changed the colour so it could be used without needing layer effects. Here are the updated sheets:

• In addition to this, I adjusted Jormungandrs' colour scheme, as on the dark background, he didn't stand out against the darker tones, so increasing the saturation helped with this, visually. 
• I learnt that Toon Boom allows you to "assign" colours to certain assets, so if you wanted to change the colour at a later date, you would be able to. Therefore, I set colours for each different part, so if the shading or highlights needed to be adjusted, they could. Using this method, I was able to colour the shots efficiently.

Shot 4, with Colour:

Shot 6, with Colour:

• As an improvement to Shot 6, I added additional frames to slow down the movement of the tail further and make the wave slow down also, as it still felt a little bit too fast.

• What Could be Improved:
• One criticism I noticed was the shakiness of my lines. As I was still getting used to Toon Booms' interface and the drawing tools, I didn't pay much attention to the neatness of my lines, which is something I really need to focus on when I line Jormungandr.
• I think that the shading or the colours in the background need to be adjusted, to match the shadow colours, as this doesn't work that well. This could be done in post-production, if we don't have enough time, or can be adjusted in Toon Boom, if we decide that it's the colour of the serpent that needs changing and the background should remain the same.
• Some waves could be added to the background, to further illustrate the impact of the serpent hitting the water, such as waves hitting the cliffside and the rocks at the back. I can come back to work on this at a later date, once all of the initial animation is complete.
• Next week:
• I will be learning how to create puppet animations in Toon Boom, in order to work on Shot 5, which is the slow-motion shot, between these two shots.